I quit my job at EnterpriseDB hacking on PostgreSQL products last month to start a company researching and writing about software infrastructure. I believe there is space for analysis that is more focused on code than TechCrunch or The Register, more open to covering corporate software development than LWN.net, and (as much as I love some of these folks) less biased than VCs writing about their own investments.
I believe that more than ever there is a need for authentic and trustworthy analysis and coverage of the software we depend on.
This company, The Consensus, will talk about databases and programming languages and web servers and everything else that is important for experienced developers to understand and think about. It is independent of any software vendor and independent of any particular technology.
Some people were surprised (in a positive way) to see me cover MySQL already, for example. But that is exactly the point.
I don't want The Consensus to be just "Phil's thoughts". I have already started working with a number of experienced developers who will be writing, and paid to write, for The Consensus.
I also hope that this is another way, beyond the many communities I already run, to give back to the community such as in highlighting the work of open-source developers (the first interview with a DataFusion developer is coming soon), and highlighting compelling events and jobs in the software infrastructure world.
The Consensus is entirely bootstrapped and will depend on the support of subscribers and, potentially, sponsors. The first few subscribers signed up just this past week.
You can read more about the background and goals here, you can read about how contributors will work with The Consensus here, and you can get a sense for where this is going by browsing the homepage of The Consensus already.
Thank you for your support in advance! Thank you to the folks who have subscribed already despite very little fanfare.
Feedback is very welcome.
I'm very excited and having quite a bit of fun already. We're all going to learn a lot.
I started a software research company pic.twitter.com/PY3L0yhJlW
— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) February 25, 2026